The present invention concerns the control of printers within a computing system and pertains particularly to the selection of printing features at print time.
Typically, a printer driver includes a xe2x80x9cset-upxe2x80x9d page to allow a user to specify various parameters for printing. For example, a typical xe2x80x9cset-upxe2x80x9d page allows a user to specify paper size, paper orientation, reduction/enlargement, and various other printer parameters depending upon the features of the particular printer.
When a user elects to print a job, often a printer dialog box appears. The printer dialog box allows a user to specify such things as the number of copies to be printed, the print destination and the paper source.
For certain types of printers, such as ink jet printers used to print on a variety of print media, it is important for software and printer firmware to know the correct print media type. This is because for optimum printing is may be necessary to vary printing parameters, such as color maps, print modes and dry times, for different print media types. Generally, a user has been able to select the paper type only via a xe2x80x9cset-upxe2x80x9d page. The xe2x80x9cset-upxe2x80x9d page is often accessible by selecting a xe2x80x9cset-up pagexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cpropertiesxe2x80x9d button within the printer dialog box.
The implementation of xe2x80x9cpop-upxe2x80x9d message box has been used to indicate to a user how to change settings like paper type in the future. However, such xe2x80x9cpop-upxe2x80x9d message boxes have not provided a way to change media type for the current print job without canceling the print job and accessing the xe2x80x9cset-upxe2x80x9d page.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a method is presented for selecting printing features at print time. Upon a user selecting to perform a first print job from an application, a print dialog box is displayed. Upon the user closing the print dialog box without canceling the first print job, a media-type pop-up dialog box is displayed. The media-type pop-up dialog box allows a user to specify which type of media is to be used for printing the first print job. Upon the user changing selection of media-type, print parameters for the first print job are changed. Upon the user closing the media-type pop-up dialog box without canceling the first print job, the first print job is printed.
In the preferred embodiment, the media-type pop-up dialog box also allows a user to specify, for a first subset of media types, which side of the media will be used for printing the first print job. Upon the user changing selection of side to be printed, print parameters for the first print job are changed. This is particularly useful when, for example, photo paper with a glossy side and a matte side is used.
For media-types which are not among the first subset of media types (i.e., they do not require print parameters to be varied based on which side is printed) the user is prevented from specifying which side of the media will be used for printing the first print job.
Also in the preferred embodiment, the user can make a first selection, which results in the media-type pop-up dialog box not being displayed for future print jobs. However for future print jobs, e.g., a second print job, upon the user closing the print dialog box without canceling the second print job, a paper side dialog box is displayed if a media-type for the second print job is among the first subset of media types (e.g., for photo paper with a glossy side). The paper side dialog box allows a user to specify which side of the media will be used for printing the second print job. Upon the user changing selection of the side to be printed, print parameters for the second print job are changed. Upon the user closing the paper side dialog box without canceling the second print job, the second print job is printed. If the media-type for the second print job is not among the first subset of media types, the paper side dialog box is not displayed before printing the second job.
The present invention allows a user to change the paper type without utilizing a set-up page or a properties user interface. Such a set-up page or properties user interface can be hard to find within some applications. Further, the present invention allows a user at the time of printing to select the paper type rather than merely being reminded to make a selection for the next print job. Further, by bringing up a separate media-type pop-up dialog box the user is forced to consider which paper type is being used, rather than relying on a default paper type. This is especially helpful for a printer which supports a wide variety of papers and provides for a user to receive the best output specifically engineered for each paper type.